pa rt ami 

HE ANALYSIS AND CAUSE OF THE 
EXISTENCE OF MEMORY 



PART j, w. 

ANALYSIS AND CAUSE OF UNCON 
SCIOUSNESS AND SLEEP 



•sander S. Richards 




Book ^RE 



GojpgM 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



PART ONE 

THE ANALYSIS AND CAUSE OF THE 
EXISTENCE OF MEMORY 




PART TWO 

ANALYSIS AND CAUSE OF UNCON 
SCIOUSNESS AND SLEEP 



BY 

Lysander S. Richards 



Author of "Vocophy'' Indicating the Vocation One is Best 
Fitted to Follow — 2. "Breaking Up or The Birth, De- 
velopment and Death of Our Planet in Story 1 ' — 3. 
"The Universe: a Description in Brief* — 4. "The 
History of Marshfield in Two Volumes'' — 5. 
"New Propositions in Speculative and 
Practical Philosophy'' — 6. "The 
Beginning of Man and What 
Becomes of Him'' 



I92O 



tfl 






Copy right 1920 
By Liysandeb S. Richards 



©CI.A597391 

Sep i3, g2£ 



PREFACE 

All my long life of 85 years after reaching 
the age of reason and manhood, I have been a 
faithful and searching student of the sciences 
and philosophical subjects, sandwiched in be- 
tween my daily physical and mental labors, and 
at my advanced age I am still a psychological 
student, searching the whys and wherefores of 
certain mental activities in every day life. 
This is the eighth book I have written and pub- 
lished, as will be seen enumerated on the "fly 
leaf" of this book, all of which can be found 
in most of the city public libraries in New Eng- 
land and many other public libraries in the 
United States. I am always glad to hear from 
my readers. 

L. S. RICHARDS. 

Marshfield Hills, Mass. 

April 29th, 1920. 



PART I. 

THE EVOLUTION, ANALYSIS AND CAUSE 
OF THE EXISTENCE OF MEMORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

My investigation of that portion of the mind 
known as memory was suggested by the desire 
to know how it was possible to find room upon 
any portion of the brain or the whole of it, for 
the impressions which is claimed to be stamped 
thereon to enable memory to recall the multi- 
tude of events and scenes that have come to our 
notice during our past lives. For example, take 
my own experience of a long life of 85 years. 
Think of the multitudinous scenes in crossing 
the Continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
not only the broad landscapes that meet our 
view, in towns and cities, but the extended 
prairies, the Rockies, the Sierra Nevadas, the 
Great American Desert and all the varied 
places coming to our notice, the mines of Cali- 



Memory 

fornia and Nevada, the Yosemite and Big 
Trees, the placid waters of the Pacific, the ex- 
tensive vineyards and fig trees, the thousand 
and one attractions one meets in travel, beside 
the surroundings about your home and the 
adjacent country, that your vision is bound to 
take in, aside from the impressions made in 
your conversations with the other fellow that 
you have chanced to meet in a life time and the 
knowledge you have gained by study and ex- 
perience, whether acquired in the world of 
letters or by contact with everybody in every 
day life, words, phrases, knocks met somehow 
and somewhere at all times, how it is possible 
to find room in our brains to impress or stamp 
thereon all or the fractional part of the scenes 
and doings of a life time. Various works on 
Psychology and treatises on Memory I have 
carefully studied in one of the largest libraries 
in America, the Congressional Library in 
Washington, D. C, as well as carrying on cor- 
respondence with professors of Psychology in 
some of our greatest colleges and universities, 
but fail to find any well established theory that 
gives any clue to the solution of the problem. 
Professors are not agreed upon it, and one 
writes it is not explainable. But as a layman 
and an investigator, I shall venture a solution, 
whether or no it is endorsed. At this point I 



6 



Memory 

think I will put in the correspondence passed 
between us, I will mention only one and will 
give my questions submitted first : 

"Dear Professor: 

"I am spending my winter in Washington and 
most of the time in the Congressional Library 
and am investigating the subject of Memory, 
but after looking over several books on the sub- 
ject, I failed to find the information I want. 
What I am after is to find out what is the 
primal cause of memory, from what source does 
it originate? Prof. Meummen in his work on 
Memory tells us it is founded upon conscious- 
ness, well that does not seem to satisfy my 
inquiry. For example, I can remember events 
75 years back, very clearly, not only names, but 
places, residences, landscapes surrounding the 
buildings, my native place, and distant places 
of interest viewed along the pathway of life. 
We are told all these things are imprinted upon 
our brain, and that is why we can recall them so 
readily. Well now what puzzles me is, how is 
it possible to find room enough in our brain to 
register or imprint all the phenomena of our 
past life, the thousand, aye tens of thousands of 
incidents and images we have seen, as in my 
own experience of 85 years existence. How do 
you account for the existence of memory? How 



Memory 

is it possible to memorize things that have hap- 
pened in the multitudinous events and scenes of 
a long life? We are conscious of these thousand 
and one things of course, but what is it that en- 
ables us to record and remember them, the 
primal root that underlies the whole business? 
I cannot find anything in the Congressional 
Library or Boston Public Library that explains 
the cause satisfactorily. Can you enlighten me. 
An early reply will very much oblige. 
"Cordially yours, 
"LYSANDER S. RICHARDS." 

I will quote in full a reply from one of 
my correspondents, an eminent professor of 
Psychology in a leading university of New Eng- 
land: 

"Psychological Laboratory. 
"Dear Sir: 

"I am in receipt of your letter of Jan. 18th 
asking certain questions about the problem of 
Memory. I am surely at a loss what literature 
to suggest in order that you may find any 
adequate answer to your question as to what is 
the primal cause as a root of our memory 
processes. Psychology nowadays, like other 
natural sciences, has pretty much ceased to 
speculate on ultimate causes and as in physics 
for instance, confines itself to a gathering of 



8 



Memory 

facts, their classification and an attempt to 
discover uniform laws. 

In this phase of the matter, there is of 
course you know a wealth of literature, but 
I know of nothing that would enable us to 
specify any more ultimate cause for memory 
than the change undergone in the course of our 
lives by the nervous system. As for the possi- 
bility of having recorded in such relatively 
small compass, the thousand of facts over 
which our memory has command, I do not 
feel the seriousness of the problem. As you 
may know the nervous system is made up 
of microscopic elemental units called neurons, 
of which you know there are probably some 
ten thousand million or more, how these 
neurons are interconnected by mere contact, 
that since each neuron has many processes 
projecting from it one can see that there are 
millions and millions of possible connections 
that may be established between different 
neuron systems." 

I am not at liberty to give the name of my 
informant. 



CHAPTER II. 

Of course it must be a matter of speculation, 
at any rate in the present limited knowledge 
of the facts in the case, and cannot be other- 
wise until microscopic development has suf- 
ficiently advanced, perhaps centuries to come, 
to make it by actual observation an absolute 
certainty, an actual fact, and not a hypothesis. 
This, however, I believe is a possibility. Look 
at the advance of microscopic observation in 
the past 50 years in the many varieties of 
germs that have been discovered, not only dis- 
covered, but applied by the medical profession 
in the eradication of heretofore fatal diseases 
by individual, expeditious, scientific rational 
treatment, such as the use of Antitoxin for 
diphtheria and the Pasteur treatment dis- 
covered by Pasteur for hydrophobia, the purify- 
ing treatment of milk, the discovery through 
the aid of the microscope of typhoid fever 
germs and numerous other germs which the 
medical profession apply for the benefit of 
mankind, hence I think it reasonably possible 



10 



Memory 

that the time will arrive in the not distant 
future, when the impressions somehow and 
somewhere in the brain will be manifest in some 
manner and form recognizable by a greatly 
improved microscope. 



11 



CHAPTER III. 

To make myself clear in this discussion, I 
must give the outline or description in brief 
of the formation of the brain, especially as ap- 
plies in its relation to memory, that the reader 
who may not happen to be familiar with the 
physiology of the brain mass may better under- 
stand the subject under consideration. The 
brain is divided into two parts, the right and 
left hemispheres, and these again are divided 
in three parts, the Cerebrum, the Cerebellum, 
and the Medulla Oblongata. The Cerebrum is 
the frontal portion of the brain and contains 
the larger proportion of the intellectual facul- 
ties. The Cerebellum is the little brain back 
of the head, and is the seat of the animal pro- 
pensities. The Medulla Oblongata is located 
at the base of the Cerebellum or head of the 
Spinal Cord. The brain is again divided into 
several lobes, the frontal which is situated in 
the front part of the brain and the parietal 
located at the top or middle portion, and the 
occipital which is situated in the back por- 
tion. 

12 



Memory 

We look for the highest, the reasoning facul- 
ties in the frontal portion, the moral faculties 
we find located on top, while the low, the 
animal faculties occupy the back and base of 
the brain. The shape or form of the encepha- 
lon, or brain outline differs in various species 
of the animal kingdom. The brain of the rab- 
bit, the dog, the horse, in fact nearly all the 
quadrumana is elongated. In the approach to 
man, the brain grows deeper, thicker, rounder 
and less elongated. 

The anthropoids as in the ape, the chim- 
panzee, the oran outang, the gorilla, and in 
the monkey the brain is more rounded, the 
monkey however is not as well shaped and not 
as intelligent as the oran outang or chimpan- 
zee. The gorilla, although possessing a large 
body and more powerful, the cerebrum is not as 
well developed, the cerebellum or occipital 
portion predominates. The chimpanzee, the 
oran outang approaches nearer to man in 
roundness and good form, than any in the 
animal kingdom ; in fact, the shape of his head 
is a perfect image of man. In size and weight 
in comparison to the brain of man, it is much 
less, weighing in the largest but 14 or 15 
ounces, while a full grown man weighs from 
50 to 60 ounces, as for example, Cuvier the 
eminent palaeontologist, and Daniel Webster, 



13 



Memory 

the statesman. The distinction in the inner por- 
tion of the brain is further marked by its con- 
volutions in vertebrates, that is instead of the 
brain mass as in the lower order of vertebrates 
being smooth, it is convoluted or folded over in 
elongated rounded mass with well defined 
crevasses between each folding all through 
the brain mass. It had its highest and greatest 
folding in man, for the greater the convolutions 
or foldings, the greater the intelligence as dis- 
played in human being, although the elephant 
and whale possessing an enormous body, they 
necessarily possess a larger encephalon, but 
a smaller cerebrum or front brain than man, 
and although they have many convolutions, 
the crevasses or fissures are not as deep and do 
not have the depth of gray matter which is 
found in the deep convolutions of man, mark- 
ing the distinction in his superior intelligence. 
The cerebellum in these two mammoths pre- 
dominates. 



14 



CHAPTER IV. 

Cells. 

The cells that contribute to the make up of 
the brain of man are extremely numerous, not 
only thousands but millions of them. They are 
of course minutely microscopic. All animal 
life, or nearly all have more or less cells in their 
organism, some, as in the species of Mollusks, 
have only a single cell, but in the evolution of 
animal growth from the invertebrates into 
vertebrates and from the lower vertebrates to 
higher forms in the scale of intelligence, the 
number of cells in the brain increases, and in 
or on these cells somehow and somewhere 
memory must have a lodgment, and as we all 
know it is not confined to man. Go back to 
the invertebrates, the insect, for example the 
ant, the bees, the wasps. A case is narrated by 
an observer who was in the habit of leaving his 
window open in his office and a wasp was in 
the habit of flying through the opening from its 
nest in the corner of the room and one day the 



15 



Memory 

window happened to be closed, the wasp in its 
daily flight not observing the closed window 
flew against it and fell upon the floor partially 
stunned, but soon recovering started up and 
flew around the room endeavoring to find a 
place of exit and at last found a little crack 
through which it made its exit out of doors. 
It was not long before it flew back through the 
hole or crack and sped to its nest in the corner 
of the room. Some time after it emerged from 
its nest and instead of attempting to fly through 
the opening in the window, it remembered the 
blow it got against the glass which stunned 
it, it flew direct to the crack through which it 
made its exit, and soon returned the same way, 
and never afterwards did it attempt to fly 
through the open window, but always flew 
through the hole it had discovered. That was 
a clear case of memory existing in the brain of 
that wasp, not instinct, for instinct would have 
caused it to fly through the open window, but 
remembering it got badly bumped against the 
closed window, it reasoned that it would not 
make that fool attempt again. We talk about 
instinct, instinct is nothing but the force of a 
long continued habit acquired through many 
generations and becoming an hereditary trans- 
mission, passed down from generation to gen- 
eration, otherwise how did the first wasp, bee 



16 



Memory 

or ant acquire its so-called instinct, in perform- 
ing certain flights or direction in striking a bee 
line in reaching a fixed place, if not the gradual 
development of this habit. A horse if given a 
free rein, in passing a driveway previously 
traveled, will invariably turn readily into it. 
That is not instinct, it is simply the force of 
habit, an exercise of memory, that directs that 
faculty to swing or move in the direction sug- 
gested. 

One of my townsmen who is an actor, 
has for the past five years been perform- 
ing in Great Britain, in a sort of a wild 
west play, where it required three ponies 
to carry out the features of the play. 
Previous to his passage to England five years 
ago, these three ponies were resting during his 
summer vacation in my village of Marshfield 
Hills, Mass. On account of the war in England, 
he was obliged, after five years absence to re- 
turn home for a while to said village, and after 
his arrival he engaged a party at the Hills to 
go to Boston, a distance of 30 miles, and get 
the ponies and drive them home. When they 
arrived at Little's bridge over the North River, 
the dividing line between Marshfield and 
Scituate, a mile from the stable, the three 
ponies were given a free rein, and although 
they passed several main thoroughfares of 



17 



Memory 

travel, right and left, they turned around an 
abrupt corner at right angles and passed down 
the road and soon turned into the driveway to 
the stable where they lodged five years before. 
There was an instance of memory impressed on 
their brain, not instinct as commonly inter- 
preted, but a clear case of memory, a remem- 
brance, a fact that they had not forgotten, and 
used it to their advantage. Bees are known 
when they fly a long way from their hive, to 
get bewildered and flutter about here and there 
to find the direction of their hive, after circling 
about for a while and getting by chance nearer 
in the direction of their home, they discover 
their whereabouts and at once they strike a bee 
line, most probably they come across some 
familiar mark which memory makes known to 
them. A carrier pigeon when at first let loose, 
does not fly in a bee line to its destination, but 
flies around and around in a circle until it gets 
its direction and then strikes a straight line for 
home. Undoubtedly these animals mentioned 
have a sense of direction stronger than most 
species of animals, but even with them their 
memory is taxed and used to locate the direc- 
tion of their flight. 



18 



CHAPTER V. 

Gray Matter and Sense Nerves and Cells. 

These minute rounded cells in man called 
neurons radiate in branches or fibres. There 
is an envelope over the brain under and next to 
the skull called the Medulla sheath, a sheath 
which affords an added protection to the in- 
terior mass below the envelope. There is a 
soft substance called gray and white matter. 
The white matter underlies the gray and is 
more abundant. The gray matter descends 
down into the crevasses and sutures, between 
the foldings, the convolutions, and as it is set- 
tled that it is the seat of intelligence, much 
more so than the white matter, it means a great 
deal as to the extent of larger surface in the 
byways of the foldings here and there. 
Some animals have very strong nerve cells in 
the frontal portion of their elongated brain, for 
example the dog possesses large, 'prominent 
olfactory nerves which enable it to scent 
an animal's tracks, as in the hound, the hunter's 
companion, and the bloodhounds used to hunt 



19 



Memory 

and trail an escaped criminal by smelling his 
tracks in the path of his flight, and the rabbit 
has them largely developed as one can detect 
by watching his nostrils swell when startled by 
a strange sound. A rat has the organ well de- 
veloped above the ordinary animal, as the 
housekeepers discover when one is caught in a 
rat trap, and in order to trap another the trap 
has to be scalded to remove the odor that the 
rat detects from previous use. The nostrils of 
a horse are seen to dilate when approaching 
danger and it sometimes cannot be induced to 
go ahead, fearful of some catastrophe. Also 
the optical nerves are enlarged, for they have 
greater powers of vision than man. Any one 
much accustomed to driving is aware of this, 
as for example in a dark night, the horse driven 
by a careful driver is given free rein for he can 
see farther ahead than man and is more relia- 
ble to keep in the road and escape any danger 
of collision. 

In some animals the Auricular nerves are 
much enlarged, for their sense of hearing is 
very acute. A cat has the faculty in a large 
degree, so does the dog and the horse. 



20 



CHAPTER VI. 

Impression of an Image on Cells. 

Having given a cursory description of the 
brain and its ramifications and its functions, let 
us proceed to investigate and see what it has 
to do with the root, the primal processes of 
memory. We have been discussing the exist- 
ence of the multitude of cells in the brain. We 
are cognizant that there are millions of them 
there, hence the notion that there is not room 
for long extended impressions from youth up, 
vanishes. There certainly could not be room 
for the impressions in their extended original 
size and form, but through some process they 
become reduced to microscopic size, and 
stamped upon a single cell, or neurons, which 
is preserved for future use, and can be recalled 
at any time if the impression was stamped deep 
enough and important enough to make an im- 
press to be recalled when memory brings it up. 
Memory is not wholly subject to volition or will 
at all times at a moment's notice, for often 
one cannot recall a certain event or name, but 



21 



Memory 

by association of perhaps some similar event or 
name it may be recalled. Association has a 
great deal to do in aiding memory. The im- 
press must be sufficiently reduced in size that 
the cell can receive it. Wonders have been 
performed in microscopic impressions. Many 
have seen the Lord's prayer printed on a little 
plau* no larger than the head of an ordinary 
pin. I have in my cabinet a small plate the 
size of the head of a common pin on which is 
photographed a young man and lady rowing in 
an ordinary size boat down a stream and under 
my microscope is magnified to the size of an 
ordinary picture a few inches long. Can you 
begin to comprehend ten thousand million 
cells in the brain, when you can you will un- 
derstand that there is plenty of room in the 
brain for every blessed item, every incident 
every scene, every landscape, or seascape, 
every picture, every discussion, every conversa- 
tion, in fact everything that thought is capable 
of embracing, all being impressed upon the 
cells. Each and every item has a cell, an in- 
dividual cell or neurons, single and alone on 
which it is stamped somewhere and somehow 
and ready to be called up at any time, as readily 
as the book crank is ready to put his hand on 
any book of his choice upon the library shelves. 
One must not fail to understand that all 



22 



Memory 

these impressions must be reduced to micro- 
scopic size to be impressed upon the cells. 
The millions and billions of cells and 
fibres are abundant enough and to spare 
for all the impressions collectively or singly 
as the occasion demands. Notwithstanding 
the tiny microscopic dimensions of a single 
cell and fibre, the impression is sufficiently re- 
duced to suit, to fit any given cell. The solution 
of the problem and how we can retain the in- 
cidents in a long life, lies in the fact, that the 
cells and tissues are there for use and if any 
portion of these impressions are not disturbed 
the impressions weaken, like a blacksmith's 
arm, or the muscles of an athlete, if in disuse 
it weakens, and the size of the arm lessens, so 
with the memory of certain events if not called 
into use, they are finally left upon the shelf and 
weaken, and our volition cannot recall the im- 
pression desired. Sometimes in visiting my 
native place, from which I have been absent 
many years, an old acquaintance hails me, 
whom I have not met for a long time. I dislike 
to say I have forgotten him, and cannot recall 
his name, hence I wait until in conversation he 
will say something that will remind me of some 
incident in early days, and all at once it enables 
me to recall the name and person with whom 
I am conversing. If that event had not been 



23 



Memory 

stored away somewhere upon my brain cells, 
nerve centers, neurons or ganglions I never 
could have been able to recall it. Sir Walter 
Scott it is said, before passing through a severe 
fever had written a book and placed it in the 
publisher's hands and when he recovered, the 
book was mentioned by one of the family, but 
he had forgotten he had written and published 
the book, he could not call to mind the many 
incidents narrated in the book, with which he 
was so familiar before his illness. Some months 
after his recovery, the memory of it came back 
to him, but not all the incidents. A minister in 
his church gave all the routine of the services, 
prayer, singing of hymns and sermon, that he 
had preached the Sunday before, and when re- 
minded of it, he could scarcely believe it, he 
faSed to remember any portion of it. 



24 



CHAPTER VII. 

Loss of Memory. 

Disease or a shock will sometimes impair 
one's memory, either wholly or in part. I am 
familiar with a case in my town, where a friend 
had a slight shock, which partially injured his 
memory, especially in his attempt to recall and 
describe an event, his dates were mixed and the 
words in his description got mixed, he could not 
describe it to make any sense to his auditor, and 
yet he seems to be intelligent and can listen well 
and seems to appreciate and understand what 
you are talking about. Physicians call it 
Aphasia. I suppose when we read occasionally 
of a person leaving home, getting lost in his 
wanderings and fail to remember not only his 
home, but his name, the cells in which they are 
impressed, become impaired, through some 
shock of the nerves not necessarily paralytic, 
but a slight disarrangement of the tissues or 
nerve fibres, sufficient to check his ability to re- 
call the past, and the same is true of a machine, 
a graphophone, a victrola for example, if any 



25 



Memory 

part of the record is injured it will fail to 
respond, and also any instrument in any way 
deranged. The fact, the idea, which is not 
material is there just the same, but the impair- 
ment of the instrument destroys the communica- 
tion, the manifestation. 

A neighbor, a brother-in-law, knew of a 
friend whose brother left home suddenly a few 
years before and had not been heard from. 
After some years of anxiety concerning his 
mysterious absence, the brother thought he 
would consult a psychic or medium, and during 
a sitting with Mr. Samuel Grover of Boston, a 
famous medium, years ago, a message came 
from a departed spirit and friend of the absent 
one and said that the brother was in San Fran- 
cisco, Cal., in a hospital, that long before by 
some accident his head was struck in some way 
and he was rendered unconscious. He was taken 
to a hospital. He lost his memory so that 
he could not inform his attendants where he 
came from and had no idea where his relatives 
lived. Even his own name he forgot. His 
relative wrote to San Francisco to the hospital 
where the medium said he could be found and 
had a reply that a person meeting the descrip- 
tion was still there they thought. The brother 
immediately started across the continent and 
arrived at said hospital and found the brother 



26 



Memory 

just as the medium had stated and brought him 
at once to his lost home, and finally his memory- 
was restored. 

The loss of memory is also caused often by 
the lack of nutrition. These cells upon which 
memory is planted need food as much as any 
other portion of the body and sometimes they 
are not able to assimilate the food offered 
the cells, and it passes off as waste, the 
lack of blood flowing regularly into them 
is not sufficient to nourish them, also the 
stagnation, the stoppage of its flow in that 
part causes the brain to become clotted, 
To find the proper nerve food for this deficiency 
is for your physician to determine. Memory is 
not always lasting. The school boy who com- 
mits his lessons easily, does not, as is well 
known, retain knowledge as long as the boy or 
girl who has to plod hard and long in learning 
what he is studying. Where the lesson is 
quickly acquired with but little effort it is not 
stamped or impressed as deeply upon the cell, 
like the blacksmith's hammer upon the heated 
iron, the harder the blow, the deeper and more 
lasting the impression. Deep study, well ham- 
mered upon the cell tissues is what is needed 
for long continued permanency. 



27 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Sensory and Motor Cells, 

The weight of the brain in comparison to the 
body is one to 40 and of the amount of blood 
sent over the body, one-fifth goes to supply the 
brain. The sensory cells and motor cells are 
centered in the brain. The sensory cells re- 
ceive the impression from all parts of the body, 
for example, let me prick my skin with a pin, 
it is immediately conveyed through the agency 
of the sensory nerve or fibre to the neurons 
or nerve centers in the brain, and at once it 
conveys the impression to the motor cells 
which send it down the motor track or nerve, 
to the muscle where the sensation originates. 
The same force that enables the sensory nerve 
to convey the impression it gets outside to the 
nerve cell center, or neurons in the brain and 
to the motor cell, the same force I repeat that 
enables both the sensory and motor tracks to 
impress its force, its impulse on said cells must 
also furnish proof that memory with equal 
ability does make its stamp or impress upon 



28 



Memory 

the cells and neurons. The same principle 
that causes the voice whether in song or con- 
versation to make its impression upon the 
record of the graphophone or victrola must be 
the same that impresses the song upon the 
grand sensorium of the brain, upon the tiny 
microscopic cells upon which memory is regis- 
tered and recalled. I remember when those 
wonderful instruments mentioned were first 
introduced. I was told to speak through the 
horn to the instrument and learn that my voice 
and words would be recorded upon the sensitive 
plate and reproduced, arid in the short space 
of a few seconds it was actually reproduced, 
not only the words spoken but the tone exactly 
like the original. If that can be accomplished 
as I have narrated, what is there to prevent 
any communication from any source that comes 
to me to be as easily and equally impressed 
upon the neurons or nerve cells in my brain. 



29 



CHAPTER IX. 
Nerve Cells Classified* 

Undoubtedly there are divisions or classes of 
nerve cells in the brain. When we listen to 
song, there may be a class of cells which are 
excited when touched, and which are naturally 
impressed more than other cells. Other cells 
easily sensitive to the reception of simple con- 
versation, may exist in a class by themselves, 
so with the sensation of sight. We know that 
the optic nerves are easily exercised when any- 
thing beautiful attracts the eye and as easily 
disturbed and repulsed when any disagreeable 
thing attracts it, and the memory of it, when 
of beauty, is sublime and the memory of 
hideous sights we cannot always annihilate, so 
it is with music. How angelic will it linger in 
the chambers of memory when the cells are 
tuned up to highest tension and how terribly 
hideous is the memory of savage encounters 
that rack the brain with its murderous screams. 

And then there is the class of cells that re- 
spond to the sense of smell and the class of 
cells that satisfy our taste or repel it, as un- 
fortunately they do in everyday life. 



30 



CHAPTER X. 

Cells Subject to Electrical Manipulation. 

Calderwood, an eminent Psychologist, claims 
that the motor cells can be acted upon by the 
agency of electricity. It is possible that elec- 
tricity may contribute some movement in im- 
pressing or recording doings upon the cells of 
our brain. It not only has performed wonders, 
but is today continuing to perfect communica- 
tions of every description. Its composition has 
not been definitely analyzed as yet, although 
several theories have been advanced. Some call 
it a fluid and some a force, like heat and 
motion, and I am inclined to think the latter is 
the more reasonable hypothesis, for you view 
a lightning bolt or a spark from an electrical 
plate machine, endeavor to catch the latter or 
grab it and you find nothing but a smart sensa- 
tion, no substance, tangible substance realized 
and it would appear that it was simply a motor 
or mode of conveyance, a force, a correlated 
force, like heat or light. You can feel the 
effect of the sensation when coming in contact 



31 



Memory 

with either, they are simply forces acting upon 
a substance which enables you to realize or feel 
its presence, the ponderable substance through 
which and by which it operates is simply a 
medium through which these forces make 
their power manifest. So it is with electricity, 
it is not a composition of matter, but simply a 
mode of motion, recognizable only when it 
comes in contact with some electrical sub- 
stance that can make itself felt and it is possi- 
ble can be utilized by nature in some way to 
record on the brain cells or tissues the impres- 
sions of our everyday life. 

We know that man possesses electricity in 
his organization, as any one who has a super- 
abundance of it can stand on a carpet and light 
his gas jet by the spark generated. 

I was acquainted with a gentleman in New 
York City who by standing on his parlor carpet, 
by moving his foot could light his gas jet. Rub 
the back of a cat and you'll feel a spark and 
so will the cat. I once shook hands with Dr. 
Newton, who was a wonderful healing medium, 
healing by just putting his hands on his 
patients, and when I touched him he exclaimed, 
"Oh! it feels like ten thousand cats crawling 
over me," the contact of my person sent the 
electric current through his organism. So it is 
possible that the force of electricity has a hand 

32 



Memory 

in stamping or impressing our movements in 
some manner upon our motor and sensory 
brain cells and also in their reproduction in the 
form of memory when occasion demands it. 

It is not always essential that every move- 
ment in our organism be conducted to the sen- 
sory track to our brain. Reflex action may 
regulate the movement when it is not operated 
by the will or prompted by any thought, for 
example, when we eat our food, after mastica- 
tion, it drops down the aesophagus without 
working our will, also in the act of breathing 
we do not will the inhalation, or exhalation 
every second we breathe, that is reflex action, 
not using our volition, and is it not possible that 
electrical movements in our organism may have 
a hand in regulating the reflex action move- 
ment where volition is not an incentive in the 
movement of nerves and tissues in our body. 
These nerves centers in reflex action are prob- 
ably subordinate centers that do not require 
transmission of sensation to the brain in any 
subordinate nerve or tissue movement. A low 
order or genera of the animal kingdom may 
have sensory and motor nerves without having 
any intelligence by a movement of them 
through reflex action. 



33 



CHAPTER XL 

Immortality, 

The association of memory in the human 
organism or any animal organism, as to that 
matter, is one of the greatest proofs of immor- 
tality that can be produced. My body for ex- 
ample, which has existed 85 years upon this 
planet, is to a certain extent more or less 
decrepit and has lost the elasticity of youth, in 
a large degree, and yet my memory in an edu- 
cational point of view is as fresh and active as 
ever, and perhaps more so, and so is my intel- 
lect. It enabled me to write "The Beginning of 
Man and What Becomes of Him" at 80 years 
of age, which has had quite an extensive circu- 
lation, and this book at 85. The fact that my 
mind and memory are in full strength and fresh 
in my old age, while my body is gradually 
weakening, is evidence that the mind, the 
memory, the force (call it spirit) is continuous, 
is immortal, unlike my body which is gradu- 
ally decomposing and passing out of existence. 
The mind, the thought, which is spiritual, 



34 



Memory 

ethereal, presents itself to us without any 
material object coming to our notice. For 
example, we anticipate things that have not 
occurred to us previously, have not met our 
vision, such as anticipating meeting somebody 
whom we have never met, but of whom we have 
heard, picturing to us his image in our imagina- 
tion, that certainly is not material, it has no 
connection with it, it is simply an idea, not tan- 
gible, you cannot handle it, for it is not a sub- 
stance, to be sure it refers to a substance, but 
it is not the substance per se. It is only in our 
memory and imagination how that particular 
object or person might look. Not one of our 
material senses can come in immediate contact 
with it, simply because it is an idea, a thought, 
and not matter. The brain, the tissues, and 
nerves are the organs, the material instrument 
through which and by which the mind, the 
thought, the spirit operates. When the organ, 
the brain, becomes diseased or in any way im- 
paired, by old age, being the machine, the in- 
strument through which the mind, the thought, 
the spirit, the ideas operates, the latter becomes 
disabled, the same as an electric light when the 
electrical apparatus, the machinery is impaired 
the electric light stops, it does not work any 
more than the mind will if its machinery is out 
of order. Consciousness is not made up of 

35 



Memory 

cells or nerves, these organs are simply the in- 
struments through which consciousness makes 
itself manifest. 

Some professors of psychology teach that 
consciousness is the basis or the primal cause 
of memory, but that does not answer the ques- 
tion of what is the root, the material instru- 
ment through which memory can operate or 
make itself manifest. Memory, thought or any 
class of ideas cannot make itself, in itself and 
alone, in the least degree manifest here upon 
our planet without it operates through matter, 
a material instrument, such as the sensory and 
motor cells and nerves in an organism. 



36 



CHAPTER XII. 

Old Age, 

To some it is a puzzle as to how old people 
can recall events to memory that occurred in 
their youth and forget some things that have 
transpired in recent years. It is probable that 
is accounted for by the fact that in infancy 
there were but few cells developed in the 
brain compared to an adult later in life. Cells 
from infancy up have to grow and multiply and 
divide in their increase as age advances, hence 
there are but few cells to be impressed and 
being soft and plastic in early development are 
more easily and deeper stamped or impressed 
than in a maturer advancement, while in old 
age, the cells begin to lose their freshness and 
plasticity and commence to disintregate and it 
requires greater eifort to recall incidents im- 
pressed upon the ganglia of recent origin, but 
of course the work of restoration, the replacing 
the cells is to some extent going on by furnish- 
ing it with constant nutrition. It is said that 
some persons grow old at 40, while others do 



37 



Memory 

not grow old at twice that age. It depends 
upon the hardening of the arteries and the flow 
of nutriment in the blood to feed the cells, 
tissues and nerves in the brain, as well as in 
other parts of the body. We should now be 
able to see therefore that memory is the key 
to the solution of the problem, that mind, 
thought, ideas, spirit and soul are separate and 
live independent and free of matter after the 
decease of the body, for it is dependent on mat- 
ter only so far as to enable itself to use the 
aforementioned organs or instruments to make 
itself manifest. As a further example of the 
separation of mind or thought from matter I 
will refer the reader to my last book written 
and published but a few years ago, entitled 
"The Beginning of Man and What Becomes of 
Him." 



38 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Growth and Memory Impressions. 

The process of decomposition is going on 
after 40 or 50 years of age, but is gradually 
nourished from day to day as the waste of de- 
caying cells and tissues pass out of the body. 
This is an economical and wise arrangement of 
nature, for otherwise our bodies would be 
enormous in stature in the accumulation of 
matter. 

Some things in nature never stop growing 
while life is present, such as trees, the big trees, 
the Sequoia of California which have been 
growing for three or four thousand years. 
When trees stop growing life in them is becom- 
ing extinct and decay results. The whale keeps 
on growing for a century or two, but man has 
generally reached the extent of his stature at 
about 24 years of age and often sooner. 
Fat accumulates as time goes on in many 
cases, but that is not considered growth in 
stature. Memory is prolonged through a long 
life by its continued use and exercise. When 



39 



Memory 

one is not accustomed to reading and cudgelling 
his brains in reflecting and studying what he 
reads and selecting such subjects that require 
thought in its analysis, no wonder that the 
gradual loss of memory and brain activity as 
age advances is slowly losing ground. 

The mind needs as much exercise as the 
body and the body as much as the mind. What 
a blessing is the faculty of memory in the brain, 
if life has been pure and noble and unspotted 
before the world. But for a corrupt and un- 
happy life it cannot be called a blessing and 
that marks the difference between heaven and 
hell, and it appears to me the former condition 
in life is worth striving for, certainly there can 
be no question that it stands in this life or the 
other for heaven or hell (which is a guilty con- 
science) and the best guidance that I can call 
to mind is the Golden Rule "Do unto others as 
you would have them do to you." 



40 



CHAPTER XIV. 
Stamped on Memory Cells, 

Plato says "Every man has presumably in 
his mind a block of wax, which is of various 
quality, which is the gift of memory. Upon 
this block the perceptions which he wishes to 
remember are sealed or stamped. The memory 
continues only so long as the impression re- 
mains." Herbert Spencer alsa advances the 
theory that the brain cells are sufficiently 
plastic to record impressions and believes that 
memory recalls these stamped records at will. 

Herring says that he assumes there is no 
common memory organ, but that each particu- 
lar sense organ and every part of the nervous 
system has its own memory function and that 
particular nerve cells retain sense impressions, 
and that all impressions are not confined to the 
brain for the spinal cord has its own nerves to 
respond, a sort of reflex action. He further 
says when the filial (child) cell inherits the 
quality of the parent cell it may be said to re- 
member what occurred in the present organism. 



41 



Memory 

It repeats what is feebly experienced as a part 
of the great whole." As an old man repeats in 
memory the experience of his childhood. 
Memory is a continuous process, and the whole 
series of organic life is the reproductive faculty 
of what belonged to the previous organic form, 
bequeathed to the descendants its properties, 
thus individual development in the higher 
animals is merely a reproduction improved 
upon, an evolution, and this explains the in- 
stinct of animals, a hereditary transmission. 



42 



CHAPTER XV. 
Instinct. 

The innate, reproductive faculty in the chick 
enables it to repeat easily the performance of 
its mother. We see this illustrated in the per- 
fect development the day of its birth, its 
perfect independence in helping itself in search 
of food. When with the mother hen, the 
mother assists it, but when hatched from an in- 
cubator, it has no mother or guide, but picks up 
its food and selects it to its own liking. Also 
the act of the spider in spinning its web was 
acquired through innumerable generations of 
spiders and that is instinct through inherited 
memory. When a child is born it inherits 
divided memory cells, and thus its memory is 
a portion of the memory of its parent and a 
habit is transmitted from its parent, a part of 
its memory is transmitted through the double 
cells when the child is conceived and born. 

Delagu says life is a reproduction and a re- 
production of memory. Herbert Spencer in his 
chapter on memory says, "Instinct may be re- 



43 



Memory 

garded as a kind of memory. On the other 
hand memory may be regarded as a kind of 
incipient instinct." The automatic actions of 
the bee, are, as it were, originally remembered. 
Memory is not confined to the singular number, 
it is plural as well, for there are memories. 
There is an organic memory and a conscious 
memory. Organic memory is a kind of an in- 
stinctive memory or hereditary memory as of 
parental origin, while conscious memory is 
memory of events, scenes, etc., acquired with 
the consciousness that it has been previously 
experienced. Schneider says "that the higher 
class of mollusks and cephalopods show un- 
mistakable traces of memory, even a snail, an 
oyster and the jelly star fish show signs of 
memory. I remember seeing an account of an 
instance where some obstruction was put in the 
path of a snail and it passed around it and on 
its return it remembered its previous experi- 
ence, and passed back in the same path around 
it previously traveled." 

Hammerberg says in the brain of an intel- 
ligent man the cells are numerous and large. 
In the brain of an idiot he found the cells were 
fewer. In the lowest order of intelligence, the 
cells are very few and seem to decrease in 
number and size with the lessening intelligence, 
hence with a smaller number of cells and 



44 



Memory 

dwindling in size can not give much chance to 
impress upon them as large a range of events 
and facts as a larger number and a greater size. 
A child's brain grows rapidly up to eight years 
of age and the increase after that is very small. 
The weight of brain remains about the same 
up to the beginning of old age, and then the 
loss of weight occurs. The weight of brain 
does not always determine the amount of in- 
telligence. Dr. Hedge has proven that when 
the brain is fatigued, the nucleus of the cells 
shrink in size, hence less memory. Fatigue is 
a hindrance to good memory. The ganglion 
cells may from disease become obliterated, 
hence we forget. According to Colgrove, in the 
decade between 30 and 39 years of age memor- 
ies involving reflection and thought appear to 
ripen. In the decade between 40 and 49 
memory for persons seems to lessen. In the 
decade between 50 and 59 motor memories of 
males culminate. The motor memory in above 
sense relates to physical or material things. 



45 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Distraction and Abstraction. 

Loss of memory is sometimes due to distrac- 
tion. A middle aged woman heard of her son's 
death by drowning, she could not telegraph to 
her husband, because she suddenly lost her 
memory from the sudden shock, forgetting his 
address, although she had telegraphed to him 
hundreds of times. Abstraction, or momentary 
forgetfulness, occurs at times through life. 
Sir Isaac Newton did not know he had eaten 
his dinner, until he saw chicken bones on his 
plate. Edison kept his bride-to-be waiting at 
the wedding, because he had forgotten all 
about it. A lady walked into her parlor with a 
ten dollar bill in one hand and a match in the 
other, she put the bill into the stove and saved 
the match. A great share of loss of memory 
is due to abstraction or absent mindedness 1 , 
which is simply that the mind is absorbed in 
one thing or object to the neglect of anything 
outside of it. Secondary memory is a species 
of reflex action. It is related of Canon Gore 



46 



Memory 

that he was once present at the death of a pick- 
pocket who professed penitence. In the agony 
of death the dying man exclaimed in a coarse 
whisper, "look out for your watch." While 
uttering those words, he died, but his hands 
held the good Canon's watch. A case of un- 
conscious reflex action and memory in the nerve 
tissues. 

An account of a man is given who becoming 
very fatigued from riding his wheel lost his 
memory. Prof. Carpenter relates that a miner 
in a mine by overwork lost the memory of his 
native tongue. 

Mountain climbers are obliged to note down 
their impressions at once on the mountain peaks 
as they suffer a lapse of memory due to 
fatigue. All mental acquisition must stop short 
of the extreme point of fatigue. 



47 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Association. 

Many persons see in the same object different 
shapes and forms, a peculiar blot on paper to 
a trapper or hunter will look like a beaver or a 
woodchuck, to a naturalist like a hedgehog and 
to a fisherman like a flounder, according as 
one's mind has been directed or attracted. The 
first line in a poem will suggest the second, also 
a new song will to a practiced musician sug- 
gest to his genius some tones in advance of 
hearing them and especially if he has heard it 
through once before. It is difficult to read the 
alphabet backwards. Association is recog- 
nized by similarity. The face or voice of one 
suggests a similarity to another. 

The number and size of nerve cells of the 
brain differ in individuals as their mental 
vitality varies. The nerve centers in the brain 
most used become thicker. The time for lay- 
ing a good foundation for memory is during 
youth and childhood. The cells and tissues be- 
come more plastic and more easily stamped and 



48 



Memory 

impressed. Up to fifteen it culminates as to 
memory's continuous growth and plasticity. It 
is greater in the young of animals as to growth. 
It is said it is always too late to become what 
you might have been. The plasticity of the 
nerve cells lessen as age goes on. 



49 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Improving Memory. 

A lady in England some years ago acquired 
the habit when young of learning one verse of 
the Bible every day and after she had com- 
mitted to memory two or three verses she would 
repeat them often until they were absolutely 
impressed or stamped on her memory cells and 
then after she had thoroughly remembered 
them she would commit two or three more and 
rehearse thereafter all six verses until 
thoroughly committed and so she kept on day 
after day in this fashion until she succeeded 
in learning the entire chapter, and after 
thoroughly committed and reviewed, she 
passed on to the next chapter, and when that 
was committed, and also the preceding chapter 
readily recalled, she passed on to the third 
chapter and hence in the same manner she pro- 
ceeded through the book, but she was careful 
to rehearse the whole of the preceding pages 
she had committed carefully as she passed 
through the book, and continued until she suc- 



50 



Memory 

ceeded in committal of the entire contents of 
the Bible, and at her advanced age she was 
able at any time or moment to recall any pass- 
age in the book that she desired. In fact I have 
heard of others who had accomplished this 
feat. This is one of the best modes to commit 
anything desirable to remember and is one of 
the invaluable aids to increase and improve 
your memory. The Mohammedans in this 
same manner are able to repeat every word of 
the Koran to memory. Some writers claim that 
under certain conditions one can recall uncon- 
consciously without any effort of the will, things 
or scenes that have occurred through their life's 
experience, a sort of subconscious state, a re- 
flex action as it were, for instance you often 
hear of one who nearly drowned. All his past 
life seems to rush before him in his memory 
and how important it is that we should so live 
in our every day life to have nothing to be 
ashamed of at the point of death, as will come 
to all of us. Everything we have done in life is 
recorded on the brain cells and is so stamped 
and impressed that it is liable under some cir- 
cumstances to be recalled in our memory. 



51 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Attention, 

Attention is one of the most important 
things to aid memory. Giving attention to any- 
thing worthy of it and fix it in your mind, stamp 
it firmly on your memory cells for keeps. Re- 
peat it to yourself until well fixed. Stewart says 
that the permanence of the impression which 
anything leaves on the memory is in proportion 
to the depth of attention which was originally 
given to it. The chief thing in memory is at- 
tention. Inattentive people have bad memories. 
Attention constitutes the better half of the in- 
tellectual powers. To give attention to a given 
subject that you wish to learn, but happens to be 
dry, uninteresting and tedious as it will surely 
be with some, exert your will and strive to give 
strict attention to it, study but a little at a time 
and not attempt to take in the whole situation 
at once and it will become more easily remem- 
bered. The reason why children and even 
adults become discouraged is because they are 
impatient and want to grasp the whole thing at 



52 



Memory 

once, but do as the old lady mentioned did in 
committing to memory every word and chapter 
of the Bible, just a little at a time, only as much 
as you can take in, no matter how little, even 
but a single word or two, and repeat it until 
thoroughly remembered. Count the number 
of pages in each chapter of this book or any 
book, and then the words on each page — keep 
recalling them, and then the outline of events, 
or ideas as you proceed, and recite them to 
some one or to yourself aloud, and by this pro- 
cedure your attention and your memory will 
advance a step or two. Look at what you are 
reading or studying intelligently, not parrot 
like, without thought. A bank teller wanted 
to improve his memory of faces, for it was im- 
portant in his vocation. He tried several meth- 
ods, but could not seem to make any progress. 
The trouble was he took in the whole face at a 
glance and didn't remember, but finally he tried 
the following method, instead of taking so gen- 
eral a view of the face. He made it a point to 
observe a single feature, say the nose. Was it 
a well shaped Grecian nose, straight and well 
formed, or was it a Roman nose, large and a 
prominent projection in the middle, or was it 
a turn up nose at the end, or a pug nose? What 
was the color of the eyes, were they black, grey 
or blue, and was the look sharp, sparkling or 



53 



Memory 

dull? What was the shape of his chin, was 
it full and well formed or was it small and re- 
treating? How about his perceptive faculties 
in front of his brain, was it well rounded or re- 
treating, sloping backward? and how about 
his head of hair, what was the color, and did 
he have whiskers? and his mouth, did the cor- 
ners or ends turn up or down? if up he is cheer- 
ful and optimistic, if turned down he is inclined 
to be morose and pessimistic. The teller per- 
sisted in his attention to these details and every 
once in a while he would recall them, and by 
practicing this method in detail daily instead 
of a general view he succeeded in his recogni- 
tions with ease. 

The same is true about a house. What was 
peculiar or noticeable in its architecture, was 
it colonial, a cottage, a two story, and what 
was its color and what about the grounds sur- 
rounding it? Observe a horse. Was he grey, 
black, sorrell, chestnut or white, was he fat or 
lean, a bob tail or long tail, what would he 
weigh and how many hands high, were his 
knees sprung, was he sound, how about his 
teeth, what did they indicate as to his age and 
chewing food? Take in all the details sepa- 
rately and recite them to your friend and 
neighbor or to yourself. Atkinson gives these 
rules in looking at things: First, make your- 



54 



Memory 

self take an interest in the thing ; second, see it 
as if you were taking written notes of it, in 
order to repeat it in detail to some friend. This 
will force you to take notice. 

Third. Give to your subject a mental com- 
mand to take particular notice of what you 
are looking at, say to it "Now you take notice 
what you are observing." Do this often and 
after a few trials you will find your memory 
improving wonderfully. Before you can re- 
member or recall anything you must percieve 
that perception is only possible through atten- 
tion, hence it has truly been said "that the 
great art of memory is attention." The proc- 
esses demanded in every case of memory are 
first, attention to any given thing to stamp and 
impress it on the memory cells and then asso- 
ciation is necessary to recall it at the command 
of your will. Where it is partially forgotten 
it is more readily recalled by associating it with 
something similar. Association is much re- 
sorted to in endeavoring to recall anything. 
For example, suppose you wish to recall the 
month the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, you 
will remember it was during very severe cold 
weather and that half of the company died 
the first year, and hence you will be reminded 
it must have been in December and quite near 
Christmas. December 22nd was the landing 



55 



Memory 

and associate it with the shortest day in the 
year, the 21st of December, the day preceding. 
The more aid you can get from other scenes 
you are using in your work, the more it will 
help your memory. Use different senses to aid 
you. If you have poor hearing, it is well to 
call upon the sense of sight to assist the poorer 
sense of hearing by the sense of seeing, or 
vice versa. A really intelligent man is one 
who exercises and develops' his memory all 
around, on all sides, not one sided. Napoleon, 
to make it more memorable, when he heard a 
name mentioned, wrote it down on a piece of 
paper, then tore it up and threw it away, in 
this way he had a double advantage, both his 
eye and ear memories were exercised. Exer- 
cise the weak arm of memory and cultivate it, 
the strong portion will take care of itself. 
Several questions were asked by the teacher 
of his pupils to find how many were closely 
observing things they were accustomed to see 
often. For example, a cat when it climbs up 
a tree, does it go up headforemost or not, and 
does it go down headforemost or hindforemost? 
Take a cow lying down, when she gets up does 
she get up on her fore legs first or her hind 
legs? How is it about a horse, does he arise 
on his hind legs first or his fore legs? Did you 
ever observe a cow's teeth? I knew of a far- 



56 



Memory 

mer who was asked by a wealthy gentleman 
farmer to look at his new thoroughbred cow, for 
which he had paid a high price and see if she 
had any defect about her. The old farmer 
looked at its mouth to examine its teeth, the 
same as a horse jockey examines the teeth of 
a horse when about to purchase, as to its age, 
etc. He told the owner of the cow that he paid 
too much for her, for she had no teeth on the 
lower jaw. The proprietor looked astounded. 
Why, said he, I bought her for a sound animal 
in every respect. Then the old farmer 
laughed and told him, "why, my friend, a cow 
does not have any teeth on the lower jaw. In 
chewing her cud she uses the jaw bone, which 
is more or less sharp." Now if the gentleman 
farmer had been a good observer he would 
have known this fact before. How about a pig, 
which way does he like to go when driven? 
Will it go right ahead readily or does it like 
to go in the opposite direction? It likes the 
latter, the same is true with a hen. The 
famous Houdini, the magician, trained his eye, 
in order that he might improve his memory, 
by the following method. In passing a toy 
shop window he began by enumerating two or 
three things therein and after impressing them 
on his mind he passed again and observed two 
or three other objects, and then recalling the 



57 



Memory 

first three, together with the last three, he could 
take them all in, and again on the following 
day he passed the window and observing more 
objects he charged his memory with them and 
recalled them all as far as he had gone, and 
then in the course of a week or so, he enumer- 
ated every article in the window, which con- 
tained a multitude of them, and could tell each 
one separately at any time obedient to his de- 
sire, and thus improved his memory which was 
very important in his sleight-of-hand business 
and he became a marvel to himself and the 
public. You must use your will to view, ex- 
amine, or observe anything thoroughly and 
what is true of this is true in reading anything, 
especially anything worthy of rememberance. 
I well remember my old teacher, Master Seaver 
of Quincy, Massachusetts, narrating an experi- 
ence when a young man calling on old Presi- 
dent John Adams, second president of the 
United States. The President had a large 
library and the young teacher asked his ad- 
vice what was best to read. Well, he told him 
he would advise him to read Shakespeare, and 
handed him a book from his library. The 
young man took it and during the following 
week he went through it and returned it to 
President Adams. Mr. Adams asked him if he 
had read it. Mr. Seaver replied in the affirma- 



58 



Memory 

tive. "Well," said the President, "what do you 
think of the soliloquy of Hamlet?" The young 
man scratched his head and after some hesita- 
tion replied, "I cannot seem to recall that." 
"And you say you read the book through?" 
asked the President. "Yes, I did," said Sea- 
ver. "Well, now suppose you take the book 
home, young man, and read it, not simply pass 
through the book hastily, but read it under- 
standing^, a part at a time slowly until you 
can recall the main incidents one after another, 
and when you have given it a thorough, 
thoughtful reading return the book." He com- 
plied; this time he read the book; it was 
stamped upon his memory cells, and when the 
President catechised him this time he was 
posted and was able to talk intelligently about 
it. "That," said Seaver, "was a valuable les- 
son to me. I gave my whole attention to a book 
that I wished to remember and read it under- 
standing^, slowly and studiously." The Hin- 
doos train their youth's memory by playing the 
"sight game," placing small objects out of 
doors and tell them to observe each object 
carefully and where there is a company of boys 
each will try and excel the other and will de- 
scribe each carefully. 



59 



CHAPTER XX 

Ear Cells in Memory. 

Train "the ear" as well as the eye. When 
a person speaks as in giving a lecture or ser- 
mon, train the ear to listen attentively to what 
he says. Don't attempt to remember word for 
word but impress upon your memory the gist, 
the substance of what he is talking about. 
Take in all you can ; begin by taking in the sub- 
ject simply of his discourse or lecture, tell your 
folks about it, and the next time you attend 
drink in a little more, only as much as you think 
you'll be able to remember. Talk about it, or 
perhaps what is better, note it down in your 
diary or on a paper block, and on each Sunday 
you hear a discourse jot it down on your block, 
all you can recall, and by continuing this habit 
you'll be able in time, little by little, to give a 
good account of a lecture or sermon, and also 
you will be astonished to find what a remark- 
able improvement you have made in your ear 
memory. It means work, of course, but did 
you ever know of anything worth acquiring 



60 



Memory 

without strenuous attention and application? 
Genius, so much admired, is the sum of labor 
and perseverance. The ear memory can be 
cultivated and improved to a wonderful ex- 
tent. I recall the ease I can hum a tune after 
hearing it once or twice on a Victrola. But, 
you will say, "You have probably a good ear 
for music." It has been made so by close at- 
tention to the tune and a love for it. When I 
hear a tune somewhere I enjoy, I get the title 
of it and purchase the sheet of music at Ditson's 
Music Store and copy the song on a sheet of 
paper. Copy the stanza or bars and place the 
notes in their proper position on the bars and 
the words I write underneath the bars corres- 
ponding to the notes above, no more, no less, 
and when I am out of doors at work among my 
fruit trees and vines, I pull out the paper now 
and then, learn the tune from the notes and the 
words and after a while when I think my mem- 
ory is sufficiently impressed or stamped with 
the tune I go to the piano and set my eye mem- 
ory, with the assistance of my ear memory, at 
work. I attempt to play the tune and after 
a while I succeed without notes and this is 
done when I am busy at work physically out 
of doors, a little at a time. In this way I learn 
many tunes and recall them months afterwards 
without being confined to any notes and am 



61 



Memory 

not obliged to use them in playing the piano, 
as many young ladies are apt to say when 
asked, "Oh, I can't without my notes." Many 
persons are apt to think their hearing is de- 
fective, when if they would give their whole at- 
tention to the speaker they would find it would 
help them. Let your sight memory cell as- 
sist your ear memory cell, by looking straight 
at the mouth, the same as has now become the 
habit of deaf and dumb persons in using 
their sight memory in watching the move- 
ment of the lips. I once attended a lecture 
in Washington on which occasion Alexander 
Graham Bell, of the Bell Telephone, was the 
presiding officer. His wife was a deaf mute 
and sat in a box stall near the stage. After in- 
troducing the speaker Prof. Bell passed from 
the stage into the box and sat facing his wife 
and I could see him repeating to her the words 
of the lecturer as fast as they were delivered. 
She read the movement of his lips. How quickly 
a mother will hear a child when it gives a 
whoop, with the whooping cough. I have been 
present on such an occasion, when I could not 
detect the faintest noise from the child, when 
the mother's trained, delicate ear, caused her 
to jump immediately to the child's side at the 
first whoop. 



62 



CHAPTER XXL 

Remembering Names, Events, Etc. 

This is important to a grocer, a merchant, 
lawyer, minister and everybody. Gov. John 
D. Long had a remarkable memory. I often 
knew him to recall names of persons whom 
he had met but once. Washington could re- 
call the names of many of his soldiers, it is 
said. Napoleon could remember the names of 
a large number of his soldiers, and it is said of 
the Roman general, Trojan, that he could 
recall the names of his soldiers to the num- 
ber of twelve thousand. Detectives by long 
practice display much ability in detecting 
faces and also names. James G. Blaine 
could remember faces when once his at- 
tention was given to anyone. So could 
Henry Clay. Somewhere in Louisiana, where 
he was stump speaking, he met an old man, 
rustic in appearance, who while Clay was 
speaking, said to a neighbor standing close by, 
"When Mr. Clay gets through I am going up 



63 



Mernoty 

to shake hands with him. I haven't seen him 
for 40 years and I am going to see if he re- 
members me." When Clay had finished, the 
old fellow went up and shook hands and asked 
him if he remembered him. Clay looked him 
over and said, "Are you the man who sat on 
the jury (naming the town) some 40 years ago 
in a criminal case I tried at that time?" The 
fellow replied that he was the man. It will 
help your memory by drawing a profile of the 
face of one you have met, and especially of one 
you desire to remember, if you meet him or her 
again. Do it from memory at home. I am 
acquainted with an artist, who on the death of 
a boy, a neighbor, whose mother was anxious 
to have her son's likeness drawn. There was no 
photo extant, and the artist being familiar 
with the features of the boy, set herself to work 
and drew largely from memory a crayon por- 
trait of the deceased, to the satisfaction of the 
parents. An expert gambler can, by watch- 
ing an opponent's features in playing cards, 
often tell what kind of a hand he holds, the 
lines of his face will reveal his chances of suc- 
cess or defeat. And there are some social card 
players, who by giving close attention to what 
his or her opponent or partner has played, and 
keeping the run of it, will win the game, and 
this is a good practice to cultivate memory, by 



64 



Memory 

giving close attention, a very important factor 
in the cultivation of memory. 

Cultivate your memory of occurrences. Prac- 
tice every evening by rehearsing to yourself or 
to somebody else, the occurrences and your ex- 
periences during the day. Put down upon 
paper, if you feel in that mood, and note all 
the observations that has attracted your atten- 
tion. Pursue this every evening and your 
memory will inevitably increase. 

In remembering facts, Atkinson gives the 
following rules: 

Ask yourself the following questions: 

1st. Where did it come from or originate? 

2nd. What caused it? 

3rd. What history or record has it? 

4th. What are its attributes, qualities or 
characteristics? 

5th. What things can I most readily 
associate with it? 

6th. What is it good for, how may it be 
used, or what can I do with it? 

7th. What does it prove, what can be de- 
duced from it? 

8th. What are natural results, what hap- 
pens because of it? 

9th. What is its future, its natural or prob- 
able end or finish? 



65 



Memory 

10th. What do I think of it on the whole, 
what are my general impressions regarding it? 

11th. What do I know about it, in the 
way of general information? 

12th. What have I heard about it, from 
whom and when? 

Apply above to any forgotten facts. 



66 



CHAPTER XXII. 
Summary. 

Give as close attention as possible to the 
thing you wish to remember. In endeavoring 
to recall anything, try to gain the impression 
originally made through as many faculties and 
sense impressions as you can. Use what has 
been said about association. Associate some 
similar name or event to remind you. Endeavor 
to. make an impression good and strong. Fix 
it in your mind, stamp it on your memory cells 
and tissues for all time. Use all the facts and 
associations connected with the thing as much 
as possible. 

It is well known that in old age one is 
troubled seriously with forgetfulness in things 
of recent moment. That is easily explained, as 
before mentioned. It is known as age advances 
above a half a century the brain cells, the 
memory cells are constantly decomposing, the 
same as all cells do in the human body, and 
when a person has arrived at the age of three 
score and ten, the renewal of these cells, 



67 



Memory 

through nutriment taken in the body, is difficult 
to keep in trim. The memory cells which are 
material, not mental, and through which 
memory or the mind, the life, the spirit acts, are 
weakened by age and being simply an instru- 
ment, an implement, it cannot retain in its 
weakened memory cell recent incidents as in 
younger years, but by constant use of them, as 
in keeping up studies and constant exercise of 
thought, will prolong one's memory. 

Children do not have as many cells to im- 
press, but the cells of a growing child are con- 
stantly increasing as age advances. At an ad- 
vanced age the memory cells cannot retain as 
many facts and events as in early life. An event 
occurring in old age, or the name of a person or 
thing presenting itself then is impressed or 
stamped on cells not as soft or plastic as when 
young, hence less easily retained. 

The cause of some persons being able to 
memorize easier than others is due to more 
plasticity of the memory cells or tissues in the 
brain than others. The thought is more easily 
stamped on the memory cells than on those 
whose cells or nerve tissues are harder or more 
solid. Same as one's flesh is softer than others, 
and thus the former's memory is more easily re- 
called, but it is doubtful if their memory is as 
lasting as on another person's brain cells 



68 



Memory 

that are firmer. Some children can commit to 
memory their lessons easier than others, but 
those who have more difficulty in memorizing 
often retain what they learn longer and 
stronger than those who memorize more easily. 
When anyone has passed middle age their 
memory cells have become firmer and harder by 
advancing age and are not as easily stamped as 
in earlier life, hence cannot remember as well. 
Young children, under 10, have fewer de- 
veloped memory cells, hence when sent on 
errands they cannot retain long what is told 
them. Don't scold them, they cannot help it. 
In conclusion, I am of the opinion that 
memory is a resultant of motion in the brain 
which retains the impression of thought by 
stamping it, the instant created, on the memory 
cell, reduced to a microscopic atom, among 
millions upon millions of cells located in the 
brain. That is to say, the thing to be impressed 
or stamped, must be reduced in the act of stamp- 
ing to microscopic dimensions on the memory 
cells, somewhat analagous to the photographic 
illustration heretofore mentioned earlier in this 
treatise, where I spoke of the tremendous, 
almost unbelievable reduction in size from a 
common print of the Lord's prayer to a small 
microscopic spec, and still readable by the aid 
of a powerful glass. The millions, aye thou- 



69 



Memory 

sands of millions upon millions of cells in the 
brain must of necessity be exceedingly micro- 
scopic, infinitesimally minute to enable them to 
occupy the space allotted to them in the brain, 
the minuteness of which has been proven by 
several scientific and psychological investi- 
gators. 



70 



PART II. 

ANALYSIS AND CAUSE OF UNCONSCIOUS- 
NESS AND SLEEP. 

By LYSANDER S. RICHARDS 



CHAPTER I. 

There is on record a man who fell during 
intoxication. He was picked up and conveyed 
to a nearby hospital in a death-like sleep, and 
although he kept alive for a year or more he 
was dead asleep and unconscious. He was fed 
by an attendant, but for some reason the physi- 
cians could not wake him or find the cause of 
his trouble, or the remedy, but after continuing 
a year in this state of unconsciousness they 
tried the experiment of trepanning his skull 
and found when the part trepanned was lifted, 
the brain pressed outward and he at once 
opened his eyes and his consciousness returned. 
His recovery was speedily attained, hence it 
was claimed that the pressure of the fractured 
portion of the skull pressed so hard on the 
brain within that it put him to sleep and a 



73 



Unconsciousness 

loss of consciousness resulted. That there is 
a decided tendency to expansion of the brain 
during activity may be regarded as a matter of 
fact. 

When it has been so exposed from injury 
that its behavior can be observed, it has always 
been noticed that while during sleep the organ 
tends to sink or to retire from the inner surface 
of the skull, in wakefulness it expands and not 
only fills the whole cavity, but may protrude be- 
yond the aperture if it has the chance. The 
more immediate result of the combined muscu- 
lar and blood agitation is an increase in the 
bulk of the brain and a second result is an in- 
crease of stress through the whole cranial 
cavity. The flushing of the capillaries with 
the moving blood is the cause of the second. 
As the brain occupies a close, rigid cavity which 
must be constantly full, it cannot retire from 
the inner surface of the cranial wall without 
some other material taking its place. The com- 
bined cardiac, (which means affection of an 
artery near the heart as in the difficulty of 
breathing as Cardiac Asthma), and capillary 
forces urges the blood onward from behind, the 
passive resistance of the atmosphere without 
tends to press that fluid backward. As an un- 
sympathetic touch is sufficient to check the 
vibrations of a bell or glass and abruptly put a 



74 



Unconsciousness 

stop to the musical tones, so when the grey 
matter layer of the brain is subjected to pres- 
sure the infinitely subtle vibration or active 
molecular changes in its tissues are checked 
and that means a step towards unconscious- 
ness and sleep. As the special function of the 
brain depends largely on the cerebrum 
through which mental phenomena operate such 
as sensation, thought, and voluntary motion be- 
comes suspended sleep is induced. In the 
causation of sleep, we have not only one or two, 
but a combination and succession of conditions 
inseparably linked together. The first change 
is a modified movement in the molecules of the 
brain tissue; the last is a compression inward 
of the organ. From lessened activity of the 
molecules, spring a less active state of the 
capillary circulation and diminished stress 
through the cranial activity. Next we have a 
change in the balance of circulation in produc- 
ing which the weight of the atmosphere 15 
pounds to the square inch, causing a backward 
pressure in the cerebral veins is an essential 
agent. With the altered balance of the circula- 
tion there is a change in the balance of active 
pressure, it is less from within and more on the 
surface! It is less expansive and more com- 
pressing. With a certain amount of inward 
compression consciousness is suspended. 



75 



CHAPTER II. 

The occurrence of a change in the balance of 
the encephalic circulation may be regarded as 
the central point of the theory. Some modified 
molecular action is, of course, the primary cause 
of sleep and foundation to build upon ; but the 
proper balance of the circulation is the keystone 
which gives unity and stability to the super- 
structure. There is no more certain or speedy 
means of producin^sleejp_than the compression 
of the internal carotid (the carotid is a certain 
vein in the neck, sensitive to much pressure, for 
example the pressure of the finger upon it, etc.) 
It is sometimes difficult to catch the vein or ves- 
sels accurately, but once fairly under the fin- 
gers, the effect is immediate and decisive. There 
is felt a soft, humming of the ears, a sense of 
tingling steals over the body and in a few sec- 
onds complete unconsciousness and insen- 
sibility supervenes and continues so long as the 
pressure is mantained and on its removal there 
is confusion of thought with return of tingling 
sensation and in a few moments consciousness 
is restored. The stress through the whole 



76 



Unconsciousness 

cranial cavity must be kept equalized. In sleep 
the arteries are smaller and shrink, the veins 
larger, swelling. The authority for the above 
is Prof. Cappie. I think there is a wheel with- 
in a wheel that he does not sufficiently empha- 
size. It is a primal cause in the compression 
of the outer or inner surface of the brain, some- 
thing that causes the unequal pressure of the 
mass within the cranial cavity, and that is fa- 
tigue. The fatigue which results from the 
labors of the day lacks sufficient stimulus to 
keep up the equilibrium in the brain to 
counteract the fifteen pounds to the square 
inch of the atmospheric pressure without. The 
nerves of the brain get wearied as well as other 
parts of the body by excessive labor and sleep, 
which is the handmaid of unconsciousness, 
must result. Sleep and unconsciousness is a 
partial death I say partial insofar as the loss 
of consciousness is but the highway to the be- 
yond and a person asleep takes the first step 
to it, but there being sufficient stimulus left in 
the brain and the rest from inaction recuper- 
ates sufficiently to give it renewed strength and 
arouses the body to action and calls the soul, 
as it were, back into consciousness again. 

A continual waste of the body is evident 
every moment during our waking hours and 
has passed from our body never to return, so 



77 



Unconsciousness 

that in course of years, whether seven, as is 
claimed by some, or more or less, decompo- 
sition or death of the old body in its daily 
waste has returned to Mother Earth, and if it 
was not for the blessings of sleep whereby we 
lose our consciousness in enabling us to rest 
our nerves and the various activities in allow- 
ing our bodies to gain sufficient stimulus to set 
in motion again, death beyond recovery would 
certainly ensue. The absence of noise and 
perfect quiet is conducive to sleep, but one can 
most always promote sleep when the noise is 
continuous. I was once at Sutter Creek, Cali- 
fornia, at the gold mines there located, where 
the stamp mills for crushing heavy blocks of 
ore are continually pounding, attended with an 
excessivly loud noise, night and day, which 
could be heard plainly a mile away, and my 
abode at that time was a half a mile from the 
mill. I thought it not possible to get used to 
it and be able to sleep, but after a few nights 
I began to sleep and continued to sleep well 
nightly and when once in a great while, (per- 
haps once a month), the mill ceased to work, 
the cessation of the crushing and pounding 
in the mill for a day and a night, seemed as 
difficult to get accustomed to, as did the noise 
of the pounding and crushing of ore in the 
first instance. 



Unconsciousness 

It is the monotony of the thing, hour after 
hour, day after day, that dulls stimulus in the 
brain, which gets accustomed to an unusual 
disturbance. 



79 



CHAPTER III. 

It would appear that sleep or unconscious- 
ness is due not so much to fatigue as to the 
exhaustion of the nerve cells, for the nerve 
cells are not the center of vital energy which 
lies in the heart. Hence, if an awakening from 
sleep was left to the cells alone, you would 
never awake in this life, but the restoration 
must wait until sufficient energy has been 
brought about by nutrition, which is constantly 
going on feeding it, but at times more than at 
other periods. If a lack of sufficient nourish- 
ment in the form of blood is wanting, of course 
consciousness cannot be restored, and death 
must result. Difficulty often happens in gain- 
ing normal sleep when one gets over tired and 
the patient must wait until sufficient nutriment 
in the circulation of blood has accumulated to 
feed the cells. 

A monotonous stimulation continually active 
becomes eventually ineffective and one can go 
to sleep. Continuous noise becomes monoton- 
ous. Professor Sidis says vary the stimulus in 
quantity or quality and the cell or neuron re- 



80 



I 



Unconsciousness 

acts once more. Excess of it is called stimulus 
exhaustion. By repetition the stimulus ex- 
hausts itself and can no longer call forth a re- 
action in the cell, although the cell may possess 
a large amount of disposable energy. 



81 



CHAPTER IV. 

Putting the same general law in different 
terms, we may say that sleep is produced by 
monotony. The cell or neuron may be regarded 
as a reservoir of energy. The cell stores up 
energy as it does food in order to meet the de- 
mand for its exercise. In regard to storing up 
energy, the law of stimulus exhaustion may be 
regarded as a safeguard to the cell. If the 
stimulation continues to draw more than its 
share, the door closes and the stimulus knocks 
in vain against the locked door. When the 
maximum amount is drawn, there is no longer 
response to that particular stimulus, the cell no 
longer reacts, it is asleep. When the cell has 
recuperated, the cell is once more ready to re- 
act to the given stimulus. When the cell is 
active and awake it liberates energy, and when 
it sleeps it stores energy. Prof. Sidis says we 
do not dream when we are asleep. The person 
may be asleep to all else, but will be awake 
to special stimulus whose thresholds are very 
low. Like the mother who, when attending her 
sick babe is asleep in relation to certain stimuli,. 



82 



Unconsciousness 

even when sound asleep to loud noises, but 
wide awake when any change is made in the 
wakefulness of the babe. They have lost 
touch with the external world, but the ones 
cared for still have a firm hold on them. We 
go to sleep when our consciousness is wearied 
and desires no longer to communicate with the 
active world. We sleep when we wish to rest 
from the external world. The organism falls 
into sleep when the thresholds rise. Thresholds 
here are meant that at the beginning of the 
loss of consciousness, wakefulness and activity 
is beginning to be shut off, an imaginary bar is 
being placed between consciousness and uncon- 
sciousness or between sleep and wakefulness. 
No amount of stimuli is allowed to draw upon 
energy when it has reached its maximum. The 
organism is no longer awake to the stimuli, it 
is asleep. Sleep is a limitation of voluntary 
movements. It is as much due to reflex action 
as is the act of swallowing or breathing. It is 
at times due to the working of the will or voli- 
tion, just as swallowing at times is a special 
effort of the will. One's sleep can largely be 
controled by the will as for example, when 
you retire for the night and your mind is dis- 
turbed by some pleasurable excitement or by 
some unpleasant event, instead of dwelling 
upon either when your purpose is to sleep, 



83 



Unconsciousness 

drop it from your thoughts, allow yourself to 
think of nothing exercising thought, make the 
mind blank, as vacant as possible, exercise the 
will, but not to tediousness, continue it mildly, 
night after night and insomnia will be obliged 
to take a back seat and your will is triumphant. 
Cells get exhausted of energy and become in- 
active, there is a lack of blood in the brain, it 
becomes anaemic and the carotid artery in the 
neck becomes compressed. In a dog or cat the 
carotid artery in an experiment by a scientist 
has been compressed, which resulted in sleep 
and also with man. In cases of insomnia per- 
sons have been put to sleep by compressing 
this artery. 



84 



CHAPTER V. 

The loss of consciousness in sleep being due 
to the inaction of these nerves or cells in the 
cortex of the brain. (The cortex is the outer 
covering of the grey matter in the cerebrum, 
the frontal portion of the brain) and in cases 
of accidents on the head, when the person be- 
comes unconscious, that part of the brain 
becomes for the moment paralyzed, as it were, 
consciousness ceases to work. The loss of 
memory in general is due to the impairment or 
derangement of the conscious cells in the cortex 
of the brain. An intimate friend told me of a 
case in the family where she was boarding, 
suffering from what they supposed was nervous 
prostration. He had lost all knowledge of his 
whereabouts, could not remember any of the 
familiar objects in the chamber where he lay 
an invalid, had no conception where he was, 
knew nothing of his past life. He was perfectly 
harmless, simply a complete loss of memory, of 
consciousness. These cells or nerve tissues in 
the cortex, where they are located, had become 
inactive and finally in course of weeks or 
months, his health became restored and his 
memory returned. 

85 



CHAPTER VI. 
Dreams. 

In consulting the writings of authors on 
dreams in the Boston Public Library and Con- 
gressional Library at Washington, I could not 
find any work giving a plausible theory of the 
cause of dreams, they were mostly on the in- 
terpretation of them or the peculiarity and 
novelty of the thing and not the cause or 
origin. 

"Imagination," according to Prof. Green- 
wood, "has much to do in dreams, but he claims 
that you cannot imagine anything that did not 
previously exist or occur in some form some- 
where or sometime. " That harmonizes with 
the proverb that "there is nothing new under 
the sun." In a dream it may be something that 
is not a reproduction of anything ever occurring 
as far as your memory is concerned, but that is 
no reason why it did not enter your mind some- 
time when it was not stamped sufficiently strong 
or deep on your memory cell to remember it 
some time later, for such events do present 
themselves to the mind when it was not im- 



86 



Unconsciousness 

pressed upon the memory cells with especial 
distinctness. Of course everything which 
strikes the optic nerve in our vision must pass 
to the grand sensorium of the brain and per- 
haps it may remain there but a moment, not 
long enough to be stamped forcibly on the 
memory cells. My theory as to the cause, or 
what makes us have such strange dreams at 
times, I find partially explained in my work on 
"The Evolution, Analysis and Cause of the 
Existence of Memory." In that treatise I 
allude to the make up of memory cells in the 
brain, how located and their function, There 
we find millions upon millions of microscopic 
memory cells and that every act, every idea, 
every observation, every thought, every con- 
versation in life is stamped on each memory 
cell just as perfectly as a stamp impressed on 
melted red sealing wax. Plato over 2000 years 
ago advanced the same hypothesis on the origin 
of memory. Some events, happenings or im- 
pressions are stamped deeper on these cells 
than others and are more lasting and more 
readily recalled and brought to mind than 
others. A child's memory cells are soft and 
more plastic than an adult's and hence more 
deeply stamped than when older and that is 
why the aged can remember and call to mind 
things that happened when a child more readily 



87 



Unconsciousness 

than ordinary events of more recent date. 
The cells decaying are continually replaced by 
new. Now when we are asleep, we lose our 
consciousness and our brain is not normal, it is 
at times however in sleep more or less active, 
but our perception or reasoning faculties and 
cells do not work in harmony, hence in that 
condition our peculiar, incongruous thoughts are 
in motion and in its unconscious workings it 
picks up a memory cell or cells near at hand 
regardless of its reasonableness or accuracy 
in the line of thought pursued in our waking 
state. The saneness of our dream thoughts 
may be more or less correct, but generally less. 
Our reflective faculties are more likely to be 
asleep and the memory cells are picked up in 
our unconscious sleep. Its power generally 
speaking, in the perceptive selection of sensible, 
harmonious sentences of plausible lines of 
thought is defective and broken. The animal 
faculties are located in the cerebellum and it 
is that portion of the brain that is most active 
during sleep. While the perceptive, reasoning 
organs are resting and unconscious, hence 
oftentimes those undesirable, heterogeneous 
flow of nonsensical dreams. Of course we know 
that sleepers at times during loss of conscious- 
ness work out difficult mathematical problems, 
that they failed to do in wakeful hours and 



88 



Unconsciousness 

also others in their dreams have moments 
when things come to them of importance that 
they failed to recall when awake, but these in- 
stances are exceptions. Generally dreams are 
not plausible, are unreasonable, fanciful, pleas- 
ant and unpleasant, and at times tragical and 
distressing, which sometimes are due to a heavy 
weight laying on the breast, which cause dif- 
ficulty in breathing, as in rushing late to a train, 
or something pressing forcibly upon the brain 
may arouse the sensation of fear, or it might be 
something pressing on the cells of mirth, or as 
in opium eaters, the sensation of excessive 
imaginary bliss. The reasoning faculties of the 
brain in brief are asleep, unconscious and are 
at rest, and it is only when a portion of the 
brain is asleep and at rest that some mis- 
chievous unruly cells, like vampires, are active 
at night and often so strenuously af work, the 
sleeper awakes tired and loses the rest neces- 
sary for recuperation, sometimes due to a dis- 
ordered* stomach, late suppers and dinners, 
which influence indirectly the brain, as too 
much whiskey disturbs the healthy, harmoni- 
ous, wakeful, normal activities of the brain. 
The brain cells are as liable to disease as any 
part of the body and when the brain is in that 
undesirable condition, not only will it manifest 
inconsistencies and unreasonableness in dreams, 



89 



Unconsciousness 

but also in our waking, active operations of 
the day and our memory cells are liable to be 
picked up without any harmonious relation, 
one to the other, in the formation of reasonable, 
plausible meditations, followed in our wakeful, 
normal, healthy, everyday thought. 



90 



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